AIADMK legislator, P Vetrivel, resigned from the state assembly, days ahead of the May 22 legislators meet, paving way for party leader J Jayalalithaa to make a comeback as chief minister.

AIADMK legislator, P Vetrivel, resigned from the state assembly, days ahead of the May 22 legislators meet, paving way for party leader J Jayalalithaa to make a comeback as chief minister.

Senior party leaders said they hoped she would become CM “very soon” and mentioned May 23 as an auspicious date for her swearing-in.

TN assembly Speaker P Dhanpal accepted the resignation of Vetrivel, who represented Radhakrishnan Nagar in North Chennai. A release from the assembly, issued by its secretary AMK Jamaludeen, confirmed the development.

With the resignation of Vetrivel, the AIADMK will have a strength of 150 in the 234-member assembly

The MLAs are likely to elect her as the legislative party leader on Friday. Party sources indicate that she could be sworn in as chief minister on the same day or on Saturday.

Neither the party nor Vetrivel offered any reasons as to why he resigned.

Incidentally, most party MLAs offered to quit in a bid to help bring Jayalalithaa back as chief minister through a byelection.

The AIADMK chief had to resign from the assembly and her post as chief minister after she was convicted by a trial court in the disproportionate assets case last September.

On May 11, the Karnataka High Court upturned the trial court conviction and cleared Jayalalithaa of all charges in the graft case.

However, the Karnataka government had announced that it would challenge Jayalalithaa’s acquittal in the Supreme Court.

Jayalalithaa used to represent the temple town of Srirangam in the assembly. After the trial court convicted her, she had to resign. But the party managed to retain the seat through a byelection by a huge margin.